gold gourami with tiger barbs?

gammahermit

I have 2 gold gouramis along with what i now know to be a juvenile green terror & electric blue Jack Dempsey in a 55 gallon tank. I was thinking about adding some king of schooling fish like tiger barbs but I am worried the the barbs would pester the gouramis since from what i have read tiger barbs will nip at larger fish with long fins. since gouramis have those feelers I am worried that the barbs will constantly pester the gouramis.

mattyphilly

i wouldnt trust it....they might go for the gouramis' pectorial fins

aunt kymmie

Agreed. I also wouldn't trust a green terror or a Jack Dempsey with gouramis.

gammahermit

the LFS kept the green terror in the same tank as the gold gourami & I asked if it would be ok to keep them is the same tank even after the cichlids had matured & they said it wouldn't be a problem. so far I haven't had any problems with the fish. the green terror is a bit teritorial & gards his colosseum but doesn't bug the other fish. the gouramis are the biggest fish in the tank so that could be why. the electric blue is only ~1.5" and the green terror is ~3" while the gouramis are about 4"-5"

jeaninel

Your cichlids are still very young. You will most certainly need to move the gourami eventually. The cichlids will get too aggressive as they mature. My nephew once had a Blue Gourami in with a JD and a GT in his 60 gallon tank and had to move it to his moms tank because it was getting beat up.

gammahermit

I have a 10 gallon I'm not using but that would be too small for the 2 gouramis right?

iamntbatman

For both of them? Yes, a 10g is too small. *Maybe* one could go in there by himself but that would be cramped. Gouramis are pretty territorial themselves so two of them in close quarters like that would result in a lot of fighting.

I agree, though: your cichlids are small now, but both of those fish will get very aggressive as they mature and will likely kill the gouramis.

Tiger barbs: with your cichlids, they will very likely get eaten when the cichlids are large enough. With the gouramis, I would say it could be problematic but might be ok provided you have a big enough group of the barbs.

miagrrl

i have kept tiger barbs with gouramis and had no problem. they usually only bother themselves. if you have a large enough school they leave other fish alone. the key is having enough of them.